Inhibition of reproduction and embryogenesis in the firebrat, Thermobia domestica, by juvenile hormone analogues

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Abstract

Application of compounds with juvenile hormone (JH) activity to reproducing females may result in shortening of the ovipositor and occasionally in some other changes in appearance. Severe defects occur in the ovaries: the differentiation of oögonia and prefollicular cells seems to be hindered and the mature oöcytes are resorbed. The affected ovarioles diminish and in extreme cases tear into the germarium, which remains attached to the terminal filament, and the rest of the ovariole, which shrinks into a small rudiment adjacent to the oviduct. The development of eggs deposited by treated females is often lethally affected. Disorders in embryogenesis also occur in the eggs contaminated with active substances at any time between deposition and 2 days before hatching. The substances interrupt the normal course of embryogenesis but the embryos survive for some time and may develop into strange creatures; in one case, two embryos were found within a single egg shell. One out of 27 tested substances was active in amounts lower than 1 ng/egg.

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